Podzemka is a festival of Russian contemporary poetry in Moscow underground. The two major elements of the identity is logo (red stairs, which depict the escalator to underground) and chaotic drafts of poets, which represent the underground world, its darkness.
If we talk about naming, in Russian slang “podzemka” is a shortened word for metro. Moreover, there is a double meaning, because the word “podzemka” often used to descibe some “underground” culture issues, which rhymes with the character of the festival: contemporary poetry, which is usually “underground” and unknown.
The idea of the project is simple: almost unknown, Russian contemporary poets read their poetry on metro stations for the people. Furthermore, I created several mediums like tote bags, T-shirts, and vinyls, on which the customers will find audio versions of poems of particular poets.

Finally, the whole metaphor of the design is that the logo (stairs) lead us from our usual world to the dark, mysterious and chaotic world of Moscow underground, which perfectly correlates with inner world of Russian contemporary poets and their poetry. My personal aim was to create an “underground”, “dirty” and “chaotic” design like in 90’s, because this period really inspires me, just like the works of David Carson, Chris Ashworth and Max Kisman.